Starting pay IS NOT $50K. I have been teaching for 10 years and I get $57K. I have a B Teach, a B Arts and a M. Ed. Next year I'll be on $59K and will be for the rest of my teaching career unless I go for promotion

Primary Teacher

This is ridiculous. If those teachers really feel so aggrieved over their pay and work condition, why strike? Just quit and go get yourself another job that will give you the 'right deal'.

Fast Learner

Mother of 4 - a teacher currently starts on a salary of $43,370 rising to a maximum of $62,237. The only way a teacher can earn more than this is to get a promotion so after 10 years could still be earning $62K. Don't forget also that teachers are still required to repay HECS.

good isnt it

Teachers have to deal with our kids, in groups of 30, trying to make them do something that they dont want to do. If you had to that for a living .. $50k wouldnt cut it.

Troy Smith

It is incredible how many people will say 'teachers are well paid for what they do'. And if someone does decide to become a teacher..it is meet with "Why?"If parents want their children to be taught by professionals, then you pay a professional wage. If you want you children taught by 1st year teachers who leave soon after, keep the same wage scale.You get what you pay for.

Sharon Davis

We forget 2 important elements in this debate. 1. What about the Children? 2. What about the Computers? Any person who does not support benefits for teachers is a bum. Hopefully the times will change and the wing keel of common sense will prevail and teachers will have there say.

Judith Liddle

How do we decide the value of a profession?

In every case, a higher paid 'equivalent' profession is used as the benchmark, the rationale for a pay rise. Has anyone seen a comparison to an equally important lower-paid profession as the rationale for a pay decrease??

James

hey, is time to vote with your hand in upcoming election. for the sake of the children's education in public system.

if state/public schools get more funding from federal, then our teachers will not be so stress out.

you don't see private school teachers complain do you?

jason d

Those who believe that teachers work 8.30 - 3.30 each day, as in the school's operating hours have an ignorant view of the job. Don't forget the marking, class preparation, report writing, parent meetings, staff meetings, etc etc. I have two parents who have both been teachers for over 20 years. My mother is a teaching principal who also spends half of her weekend doing administration and class preparation. Teacher's wages have not kept up with the increases in other professions, and therefore their importance is not being recognised. We need intelligent, hard-working people teaching our children, do we not?

erin

Why are they in the job? Is it for the money? Or that they enjoy teaching? If it's for the money then get out and let someone who wants to teach have their position. If it's for the love of it then why strike? I reckon teachers should be paid a good wage, they have a very important job.In relation to the rest of the community they are relatively well remunerated for their services. I question the motives for this strike.

michael coleman

50K a year starting? i believe the figures are way under that!

andy ewer

Don't give me that "teachers and nurses should be paid more garbage". Nurses, perhaps. Teachers just use their position as a political tool to bleed more money out of the end users. Afterall, we somewhere to send our kids during the week.They are getting paid very well considering the nature of the job and great holidays they get. I will trade them my job see if they like it but I bet they would'nt be able to handle the pressure or the hours.

Left Behind

James S Chrichton, there is no doubt secondary teachers have a difficult job. However, one of the two teacher relatives I have works in a primary school and still pulls in around $70K per year. The fact she earns as much as the other who works in a secondary school (a far more diffcult role) is scandalous.

That said, many people work in stressful difficult jobs, have to do so for longer hours per day and do not get around 25% of the year off to wind down.

Most teachers have not worked in other fields and therefore have unrealistic views.

Try 48 wks a year for size!!

"Try 48 weeks a year for size!!" Your comments are absolutely ridiculous. My mothers a highschool teacher and I can asure you she does not spend 6 weeks during the christmas holidays basking in the sun. My mum gets home at about 6pm every night after 'after school' commitments such as extra-cirricular activities (debating, meeting etc.) and out of hours classes for HSC subjects. She also does marking and lesson planning at night for another few hours. Holidays are spent marking (exams and assignments) , planning for lessons and focussing on the HSC and meeting students during holidays to help them and tutor them - eg. study days). At christmas she is lucky to get a few weeks off because she still does marking and lesson plans because the HSC year begins in term four the prior year and has marking and also plans for the year ahead. I know how much work she has but she is dedicated and rarely complains. Eithier you have your facts wrong or you are are a complete liar!!

Michelle

It should be performance based. There are many wonderful teachers who deserve a pay rise and then their are others who are only there for the shorter hours and the holidays.

With all of the holidays that teachers receive, should they ALL receive more money??? You can't put them in the same category as doctors or nurses, as doctors and nurses work long, long, hard hours.

Melanie

Attention 'Try 48 weeks a year for size' very naive of you to think that all teachers are paid that kind of salary. Perhaps they work in the private education system??

Most have it bad- This is a fact.

Most work beyond the call of duty for the love of the job and because they are dedicated to helping these kids. They are underpaid, and deserve to be rewarded for the job they are doing.

If you choose to see only what is in front of you and not look at the big picture, I feel terribly sorry for you.

Jess

When politicians, whose own rorts are kept quietly out of view, put up spurious claims that the state can't afford to pay teachers what the umpire has seen to be fair, I can't see that teachers have many alternatives to doing what they have to do. I have yet to meet a teacher who enjoys giving up a day's pay just create discomfort for anyone. As for all the whingeing about holidays etc. I suggest to those who have these views to spend just one day doing what a teacher does in 2004, not 1950, before airing such ignorant bigotry.

Pritam Sekhon

a 25% pay rise is ridiculous get back to work

richard

I totally agree with you "Try 48 weeks a year for size" My friends are teachers and they have the best working lifestyles out there. Working for a private company you are very lucky to get a payrise and at 6% you might get that over the space of 3 yrs. Every year they just want more make them go to work 9-6 and work the odd weekend and work for less money...lets see how they survive.

stop complaining... you get too much already

Can someone please explain to me what consitutes the raw deal that teachers have? Is it quantifiable or is it something that we have been told so often that we now accept as truth. I have no doubt that teachers do an incredibly important job and should be paid accordingly. However my understanding is that the starting wage for a teacher is around $50k per year plus benefits such as extra time to prepare lessons (now taken as holidays)etc.

This does not seem to be such a raw deal to me.

Mother of Four

i support them and wish other industries would follow suit in relation to industrail relations. This country has a government thatis breeding weak and scared workers...People need to recall thatholiday pay and other items such as were only won by unions....

daniel taylor

Anyone who thinks that teachers have it easy, or thinks teachers, and students, don't need holidays, should spend a few days in a secondary classroom. We neglect our children at our peril, and the fruits of society's neglect are painfully obvious in every class in every school. Kids act out their problems, and the buck stops with the classroom teacher. The teacher shortage in English-speaking nations after 40+ years of social change and tinkering with the education system speaks for itself. Increased salaries will help, but the failure of education departments to attract suitably qualified teachers will have to be addressed in other ways.

James S. Crichton

In Germany a high school principal earns roughly the same as a magistrate. In Australia a high school principal earns less than a senior long haul flight attendant, with most teachers paid less than first-year flight attendants. Hardly surprising when the bulk of "study" involved in politicians' "study" junkets involves the first or business class inflight menu.

LeClerc

My wife is a teacher so I see her working late into the evenings and on the weekends and during the school holidays. She and her colleagues are underpaid. They deserve more positive recognition and respect from all of us.

Michael Dugan

I have some friends who are teachers, and they are wonderful, and do a fantastic job. I have the utmost respect for their ability to perform a difficult role. However, while I think they have a very difficult job, I also believe they have numerous benefits that come with that job - school holidays, more sick leave than normal workers have annual leave. Most Health professionals have similar pay issues without these benefits. When it comes to pay, there should be no cap for teachers on the amount a person can be paid eventually, having earned it through experience and demonstration of good performance. However, if it comes to the amount that teachers are paid in general and whether a 25% pay rise is realistic or justifiable, as other respondents have pointed out, let them see that their situation is not unique, and in fact, many of them are very lucky when compared to the greater working community. They should try asking their friends what salary they started on first year out of uni, and be amazed that it was a great deal less than they secured.

Kathryn

teachers are passing a wrong signal to our children.

p wilson

The simple answer is individual performance related pay rather than across the board pay rises. This way only the teachers who deserve it will be rewarded and there will be incentive to improve often low standards.

Brian

I have two relatives who are teachers. They are home by 4pm each day, spend 6 weeks in summer basking on the beach, work around 38-40 weeks per year and both earn around $70,000 (by my reckoning this translates to about $85K when converted to he 48 weeks everyone else works). I have yet to see them do anything work related during the school holidays. On top of this they have almost total job security, regardless of performance.

Don't tell me teachers have it bad because I know from personal experience that they do not. They should take a year out and try working in the conditions everyone else has to and then perhaps the constant whingeing about pay might stop.

The 6% pay rise they have been offered is more than double the rate of inflation. Asking for 25% is simply ridiculous - they have it easy enough already.

Try 48 weeks a year for size!!

Pay teachers and nurses more. Both groups do an incredibly important job, and public funding for both sectors is quite deliberately being run down, in favour of taxpayer-subsidised user pays private systems.

They're your children.

It's your future.

It's that simple

No doubt teachers should be better paid but is striking really the answer. I work as a teacher in a private institution that mainly teaches apprentices comparative to some tafes. Sure I get paid more then the majority of tafe teachers but my pay is directly linked to my performance.

If I wish to only have say 150 days contact time with students I get paid accordingly. If I chose to have 220 days + contact time with students I get paid accordingly. Of course this is only one of the performance criteria we are judged on.

Sure pay the teachers more but directly link it to a set of performance criteria that is worked out independently by industry experts.

Steve

Teachers are underpaid and perform vital work. Our daughter attends an underfunded public school with excellent and underpaid teachers. The minor disruption caused by striking is justified by the merit of the cause.

Stephen Wigney

I don't think that the kids are all that concerned, neither would cinema and video arcade owners. I hope the government is though, teachers are underpaid.

supporter

teachers get a raw deal, no doubt. it's just a shame that the victims of strike action, the parents, also happen to be (by and large) teachers' biggest supporters.